This invention relates to an energy recovery system, particularly a recovery system that extracts energy from a high temperature thermal source, such as a nuclear power reactor, and converts such thermal energy to electrical energy.
In the preferred embodiment, the thermal energy source is a nuclear reactor, however, other high temperature thermal sources, such as chemical combustors, magma pools, and other thermal sources where heat may be recovered by a closed loop working fluid may be used.
A nuclear reactor has a universal applicability for providing nuclear energy for generation of power on land, sea and space. Compact nuclear plants can operate in remote areas: on islands, in deserts and virtually at any remote location to generate electrical power.
Off-shore floating power plants can be designed with minimal environmental impact to utilize the cold sink of the ocean for condensation to efficiently generate electricity at any coastal location in the world to provide unlimited sources of energy.
However, the typical compact nuclear reactors developed for military applications convert thermal energy to electrical power at low efficiencies. It is an object of this invention to provide a turbine system with combined Carnot and Rankine cycles to efficiently convert a high temperature heat source, particularly nuclear energy, to electrical energy. The system is designed for use with a cooling endothermic fluid that is preferably condensible, such as water, liquid metals or other specialty compounds used in closed loop phase change systems.